In many phases of medical practice, including use in the operating room and the treatment room, intravenous tubing is an important part of medical treatment apparatus. Most often tubing connections are not permanent but must be made, broken and remade according to the usage of the equipment. During these construction phases, the sterility of tubing must be maintained.
Intravenous tubing connections are most often made utilizing the medical industry's standardized Luer taper fittings. These fittings, which may either be male couplings or female couplings, include a tapered end of standardized dimensions. Coupling is made by the press-fit of mating parts.
Tubing caps are often used to seal the ends of unused or unnecessary tubing. These caps protect the sterility of the tubing and prevent fluid loss and/or particulate contamination.
Intravenous tubing caps available in the prior art of which there are many, have been for a single purpose, that is, they have been either male fitting closures or female fitting closures. These caps invariably have had flat end sections which complete the closure, the seal being made by a pressure fit of the mating tapered surfaces. A threaded lock-fit may or may not also have been utilized. They have been made of plastic or rubber.
These prior art caps have several disadvantages which make them difficult to use and hard to keep track of in an operating room environment. These caps are hard to grasp, especially when wet, because of their smooth plastic bodies and because of their small size. Moreover, the supply of male caps verses the supply of female caps needed to service closure must constantly be monitored. Additionally, caps which are not in use are troublesome to manage. They easily bounce around, roll off of surfaces and fall to the floor.
It is desirable, therefore, to have a tube cap which is multifunctional or dual purpose. It is also desirable that this cap be easy to work with and that it be easy to store. It is, moreover, desirable to lower inventory costs and inventory management problems.
An objective of this invention, therefore, is to provide a dual purpose, male-female closure cap, for any product having Luer taper intravenous fittings.
Another objective of this invention is to provide a cap which is easily grasped even when wet.
A further objective of this invention is to provide a cap which can easily be stored by stacking.
Another objective is to provide a method of storing unused caps.
An even further objective is to provide a cap with which a cost reduction in production and inventory may be obtained.